Author
Topic: Overheard at Work (Read 6835751 times)

Overheard the receptionists at a doctor's office chatting about where they were going for lunch today and what they would be buying -- it seemed to be a regular occurrence. No bagged lunches for this crew :-/

OK, let's go back to stupid names for people's children. Specifically Kaylee in all its variations. The legitimate word is Ceilidh (Scots Gaelic) or sometimes Ceili (Irish Gaelic) and it means a party with alcohol and music and dancing and basically having a grand time. Do the people using this as a girl's name have any clue as to the original meaning?

Okay - how about Stelmo for a little girl we know of? Our own children have old fashioned names so I can't laugh and point fingers. ;) Didn't want our kids to have any of the top 50 (especially the top 10) current names. I was one of those kids way back when. When they called my name about four or five of us all jumped to attention. :)

Oooh! I'm a school teacher, I've taught some doozies!

My favourites:

Doobie (female)

Shoushan (female)

Dorsey ('door-see')(male)

Jacqualee ('ja-kah-lee') & Jamarlee (they're brothers)

Teniqua, Tanika, & Tamika (all in the same class)

Shonkiqua & Shaniqua (in the same class)

Tyreke and Tireek (again, in the same class)(and then I got a 'Tyreece' this year)

Phyia ('fire')(male)

There's lots more, but they get less funny.

Bloody Queenslanders. Can't even name their kids properly :)

I may have posted this before but friend of a friend knows a poor girl out there named "Abcde" (ab-see-de)

I work in schools as a casual teacher so I'm used to not being able to pronounce half the names. I'm getting used to unusual names but its the random made up spelling that drives me crazy. When a kid tells me I said their name wrong I really want to tell them that their parents can't spell. The most recent one was pronounced Sam but spelt Sahm??? I've also had names like Atlas, Ancient and a kid called Happy Farmer.

I work in a very international environment so I'm used to all kinds of names plus mine is weird to local people here as well. I haven't encountered anyone with intentionally stupidly spelled name, though.

My kids had a swimming teacher named Dusktill Dawn -- seriously! First name: Dusktill. Last name: Dawn. I asked her name so that I could talk to the kids about their lessons afterwards. I had to say, "Pardon me?" twice.

I work in schools as a casual teacher so I'm used to not being able to pronounce half the names. I'm getting used to unusual names but its the random made up spelling that drives me crazy. When a kid tells me I said their name wrong I really want to tell them that their parents can't spell. The most recent one was pronounced Sam but spelt Sahm??? I've also had names like Atlas, Ancient and a kid called Happy Farmer.

We had a friend who was a social worker. Part of her job was to tell the parents that the pretty sounding word they heard at the hospital was not a good name for their child. Names like "Vagina", "Si-phyllis", etc. There are some truly ignorant people out there, and way more of them than you might imagine, too.

As to whether there is such a child, despite our hearing from dozens and dozens of readers who have claimed to us a girl bearing such a name was in their class or was in a class taught by a relative or acquaintance of theirs, we've yet to find documentation of anyone's bearing a name of "Le-a" that is pronounced "Ledasha" (or any other way). What we found through searching online Social Security databases (which are not complete repositories of information and thus aren't the final say in the matter) showed that while there were more than 4,000 "Lea"s, there weren't any "Le-a"s. For what it's worth, references in various news stories document that "Ledasha" (fully spelled out, not in a "Le-a" form) has indeed been used as a girl's name.

I have met someone named Na-Na, and that was the name on her driver's license. She pronounced her name Nadashna and if you called her Na Na she would quickly... and rudely correct you. I don't know about the exact story snopes is referencing, but there are people who have a dash in their name and actually expect you to pronounce 'dash'.

The office I work at is next to a bankruptcy office. I used to share an office with a coworker which shared a wall with the bankruptcy office. We could always hear babies crying in the bankruptcy office. We had a running joke that babies make you bankrupt.

The office I work at is next to a bankruptcy office. I used to share an office with coworker which shared a wall with the bankruptcy office. We could always hear babies crying in the bankruptcy office. We had a running joke that babies make you bankrupt.

Maybe the babies were the ones filing for bankruptcy... that would explain why they were so upset.

My sister works for legal aid and had to explain to a new young mother that the hospital had NOT named her baby girl for her. She thought that "female" was a pretty name (pronounced feh-mah-lee) and was going to leave it as that.

My sister works for legal aid and had to explain to a new young mother that the hospital had NOT named her baby girl for her. She thought that "female" was a pretty name (pronounced feh-mah-lee) and was going to leave it as that.

I have met someone named Na-Na, and that was the name on her driver's license. She pronounced her name Nadashna and if you called her Na Na she would quickly... and rudely correct you. I don't know about the exact story snopes is referencing, but there are people who have a dash in their name and actually expect you to pronounce 'dash'.

Am I the only one thinking it would be "Nahyphenda," and Na--Na would be "Nadashna?"

Do you guys realize you're basically making fun of others for cultural differences? It doesn't even have anything to do with finance. I'm all for going off topic, but this is just showing the wrong colors for this forum.

Do you guys realize you're basically making fun of others for cultural differences? It doesn't even have anything to do with finance. I'm all for going off topic, but this is just showing the wrong colors for this forum.

If my name was spelled completely different than the standard spelling and or my expected pronunciation of it, I would expect others to at a minimum be a bit sceptical of it. If a perfectly normal English name happened to be a rude comment in another language, I would expect speakers of that language to find it amusing.

Additionally, I don't think general ignorance/lack of education is a cultural trait, but if it is, that is extremely unfortunate for that culture.

I have met someone named Na-Na, and that was the name on her driver's license. She pronounced her name Nadashna and if you called her Na Na she would quickly... and rudely correct you. I don't know about the exact story snopes is referencing, but there are people who have a dash in their name and actually expect you to pronounce 'dash'.

Am I the only one thinking it would be "Nahyphenda," and Na--Na would be "Naemdashna?"

Do you guys realize you're basically making fun of others for cultural differences? It doesn't even have anything to do with finance. I'm all for going off topic, but this is just showing the wrong colors for this forum.

I work in an office where about half the people own homes and the other half are freaking out about how they will ever afford a home in the Bay Area. CW 1 bought a house in an amazing town with great schools in the pre-recession bubble. Just by sheer luck of timing, I bought mine after. We have very different views of home ownership and I've been trying to convince him for years that he's not in as bad of shape as he thinks he's in. After all, he at least partially owns a home that is now increasing in value again. Then comes the following, as we're talking to CW2 who is excited about closing on a house in my town (she owned in her previous town and likes the idea). CW3 is the one who is freaking and will probably not buy until this bubble bursts.

CW2- We're closing this week. I'm so thrilled!CW1- Welcome to the nightmare. Me- Come on, dude, you own a beautiful home in a beautiful town with fantastic schools. You weathered the recession. What's the problem? CW3- Yeah, I'll never own my own home if values keep rising like this. CW1- Well, I don't really own the home. Me- You have equity, man. Just look at housing values now. They have recovered and you're in a good position if you want to sell and move to more affordable town. CW2- I don't have any equity. Me and CW2 and 3- Huh? You bought your house 10 years ago? You have to have equity. CW1- No, we're barely hanging on. We bought when you had to take an interest only loan. Me- What?!!! You HAD to take an interest only loan?CW1- We couldn't afford it otherwise.

Turns out they paid ONLY interest for 7 YEARS. OMG!!!??? No wonder he's bitter. I didn't say it, but obviously he just couldn't afford a home. I lost a whole lot of respect for the guy when he claimed he "had to" do it. Do I feel fortunate that I have a cheaper home? Yes, but I also bought what I could afford in a crappier town.

While off topic as we are discussing names last year before my son was born I found a really cheap baby swing on craigslist to buy. As I was prepared to meet this woman to buy it I asked her what her name was and she told me her name was Shanky. At that point I decided to cancel the purchase. With a name like that I decided to play it safe and not be a craigslist victim.

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

My mom is a public school teacher, and she's heard some odd names over the years. One that always sticks with me is Lord Dorian. That whole thing is his first name, by the way. His mother "didn't want him to be disrespected". I don't think she was aware of what middle school kids are like.

My mom is a public school teacher, and she's heard some odd names over the years. One that always sticks with me is Lord Dorian. That whole thing is his first name, by the way. His mother "didn't want him to be disrespected". I don't think she was aware of what middle school kids are like.

My mom is a public school teacher, and she's heard some odd names over the years. One that always sticks with me is Lord Dorian. That whole thing is his first name, by the way. His mother "didn't want him to be disrespected". I don't think she was aware of what middle school kids are like.

Talk about unintended consequences...

An actual example of irony (not as its used today, to mean coincidental)!

Logged

We are two former teachers who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, and now travel the world full time with a kid.If you want to know more about me, or how we did that, or see lots of pictures, this Business Insider profile tells our story pretty well.We (occasionally) blog at AdventuringAlong.com.You can also read my forum "Journal."

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

I actually told one of my friends to do this. He, in spite of contrary advice from several people who knew better, built a house that ended up costing far too much (that's another story). Now, he is 50 with a HELOC that he has no hope of paying off in his lifetime.

My advice...sell, take a small loss, and then move into a less expensive place, or stay in your new home and simply pay the monthly interest on the HELOC, which is less than renting an apartment.

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy. This is not strategy, however, and they haven't saved anything. They're now in a market where they are stuck and have no assets. But, I see your point.

You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy.

Of course it only works in some liberal socialist country where you can walk away from the mortgage and let the banks worry .Here on the harsh Canadian capitalist frontier the mounties would always get their man.

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy. This is not strategy, however, and they haven't saved anything. They're now in a market where they are stuck and have no assets. But, I see your point.

You're out interest and taxes and insurance and maintenance. And your ability to get credit for 7 years. And it only works in a non-recourse state.

You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy.

Of course it only works in some liberal socialist country where you can walk away from the mortgage and let the banks worry .Here on the harsh Canadian capitalist frontier the mounties would always get their man.

OK, let's go back to stupid names for people's children. Specifically Kaylee in all its variations. The legitimate word is Ceilidh (Scots Gaelic) or sometimes Ceili (Irish Gaelic) and it means a party with alcohol and music and dancing and basically having a grand time. Do the people using this as a girl's name have any clue as to the original meaning?

Okay - how about Stelmo for a little girl we know of? Our own children have old fashioned names so I can't laugh and point fingers. ;) Didn't want our kids to have any of the top 50 (especially the top 10) current names. I was one of those kids way back when. When they called my name about four or five of us all jumped to attention. :)

Oooh! I'm a school teacher, I've taught some doozies!

My favourites:

Doobie (female)

Shoushan (female)

Dorsey ('door-see')(male)

Jacqualee ('ja-kah-lee') & Jamarlee (they're brothers)

Teniqua, Tanika, & Tamika (all in the same class)

Shonkiqua & Shaniqua (in the same class)

Tyreke and Tireek (again, in the same class)(and then I got a 'Tyreece' this year)

Phyia ('fire')(male)

There's lots more, but they get less funny.

Bloody Queenslanders. Can't even name their kids properly :)

I may have posted this before but friend of a friend knows a poor girl out there named "Abcde" (ab-see-de)

My mom is a public school teacher, and she's heard some odd names over the years. One that always sticks with me is Lord Dorian. That whole thing is his first name, by the way. His mother "didn't want him to be disrespected". I don't think she was aware of what middle school kids are like.

Talk about unintended consequences...

An actual example of irony (not as its used today, to mean coincidental)!

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy. This is not strategy, however, and they haven't saved anything. They're now in a market where they are stuck and have no assets. But, I see your point.

But if the market has risen overall, they're still up aren't they?

If you borrowed $500K and only paid interest on it, and then sold 10 years later for $750k you effectively 'paid rent' for 10 years (as your mortgage interest payment) and walked away with 250k, no? It's not like they will hand the keys back and get nothing in return - they will get the increase in the value of the property.

OK, let's go back to stupid names for people's children. Specifically Kaylee in all its variations. The legitimate word is Ceilidh (Scots Gaelic) or sometimes Ceili (Irish Gaelic) and it means a party with alcohol and music and dancing and basically having a grand time. Do the people using this as a girl's name have any clue as to the original meaning?

Okay - how about Stelmo for a little girl we know of? Our own children have old fashioned names so I can't laugh and point fingers. ;) Didn't want our kids to have any of the top 50 (especially the top 10) current names. I was one of those kids way back when. When they called my name about four or five of us all jumped to attention. :)

Oooh! I'm a school teacher, I've taught some doozies!

My favourites:

Doobie (female)

Shoushan (female)

Dorsey ('door-see')(male)

Jacqualee ('ja-kah-lee') & Jamarlee (they're brothers)

Teniqua, Tanika, & Tamika (all in the same class)

Shonkiqua & Shaniqua (in the same class)

Tyreke and Tireek (again, in the same class)(and then I got a 'Tyreece' this year)

Phyia ('fire')(male)

There's lots more, but they get less funny.

Bloody Queenslanders. Can't even name their kids properly :)

I may have posted this before but friend of a friend knows a poor girl out there named "Abcde" (ab-see-de)

He (the judge) also voiced concern over other names given to New Zealand children, such as Violence, Midnight Chardonnay and Number 16 Bus Shelter.A set of twins was named Benson and Hedges, after the cigarette brand and some children had been named after six-cylinder Ford cars. There has ever been a case of a child being named after the entire All Blacks side.

Quote

Brian Clarke, the registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages, told the New Zealand Herald that the law did not allow names that would cause offence to a reasonable person, that are more than 100 characters or that include titles, military ranks, punctuation or numerals.Names rejected by the office include Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Stallion, Twisty Poi, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit.

Do you guys realize you're basically making fun of others for cultural differences? It doesn't even have anything to do with finance. I'm all for going off topic, but this is just showing the wrong colors for this forum.

Woman sitting next to me and talking when I'd rather be reading (with the book open in my lap).

-not usually on the early train, and is grumpy that she has to be-two days a week she works downtown, the rest of the week WFH-they got a puppy last fall-she's allergic to dogs, and knew it when they got the puppy-got the dog because she wanted the kids to grow up with a pet-the puppy is insane when they all get home because of not enough exercise. To combat this, the trainer recommended doggy day-care for the days she works downtown.

The only positive thing I got out of this was at least the dog was being well cared for.

Woman sitting next to me and talking when I'd rather be reading (with the book open in my lap).

-not usually on the early train, and is grumpy that she has to be-two days a week she works downtown, the rest of the week WFH-they got a puppy last fall-she's allergic to dogs, and knew it when they got the puppy-got the dog because she wanted the kids to grow up with a pet-the puppy is insane when they all get home because of not enough exercise. To combat this, the trainer recommended doggy day-care for the days she works downtown.

The only positive thing I got out of this was at least the dog was being well cared for.

Metra or CTA? If Metra, and you get on early enough, upper deck FTMFW.

Okay, you had me until the last sentence. Describe "always". Does she not get sick time, holidays, vacation days? Does she work 60-70 hours a week?

THIS drives me nuts. Your kids are only young once. I would not exchange my time with my wife and kids for anything. I have a great number of peers who value their income over their time with their children. It isn't about keeping food in the fridge and the lights on - it's about having large sums of money to spend on "toys" for themselves. $5K vacations to Disney, skiboats, four wheelers or $10K "side by sides", etc. They are trading their time with their young children for a bigger paycheck. While I'll certainly say that this is their prerogative - it isn't what I choose to do. And I'm not here to lecture anyone.

I was working for a company where the only way to career advance was exchange your life for the paycheck. I had coworkers who were working 80-90 hrs per week multiple times per year, and 60 hour weeks normally. It was in a custom industrial design business.

One day "fate" showed me a way out. The company was going through a downturn back during the "Great Recession" and I told my wife I was going to start looking for something else because i felt my job was not secure.

It wasn't always that way but when the fellow that hired me left - and took some of the cream of the crop senior engineers with him - I noticed (I was very green at that point and wished he'd hired me away too). Then the company I was working for began laying off good guys - better than the more senior guys they were making room to back slide. Then I figured my time might be short. As it turned out I would have been safe b/c the position was always filled. I happily left for better everything - life/work balance, pay, benefits, stability, etc. In retrospect I realized that the people I was working closest with were a bunch of snakes. They went on to do wrong many of the people I used to work with. Glad I left on my own terms.

The company that emerged from the recession is a profitable one but one that can't be counted on by it's employees. LOTS of turnover. Guys hired on and led to believe that they have a long career ahead of them only to be let go as soon as their project is complete. Woe are the engineers who take on debt during their short time there.

Okay, you had me until the last sentence. Describe "always". Does she not get sick time, holidays, vacation days? Does she work 60-70 hours a week?

It's not easy being a working parent in the US, especially at higher paid positions. There are (in my opinion) absurd expectations placed on you. You have to work the standard forty hours, plus more if your company needs you, and once you get higher up, your company always needs you. The pay is really great, but unless you run your personal life on a tight ship, I don't know if it's worth it.

One of my middle-aged peers is flirting with heart trouble b/c of his upper level position. His wife (also a professional) can't work and would like to but can't b/c his job transfers them all over. Well paid but at the expense of the rest of his life.

I may have posted this before but friend of a friend knows a poor girl out there named "Abcde" (ab-see-de)

Haha, I've heard the Abcde one before - is it real, though?

I once searched our district to see if we really had a student named Abcde. There were several.

There was an Abcde at my high school in Hawaii in the 1990s. I never actually met her but I did see her name on some official lists, etc. So, not a joke.

A guy I went to high school with named his daughter "Abcde", and to make matters worse she is autistic and has a service dog, and he has a huge chip on his shoulder about anyone paying any attention to or asking questions about the service dog. (It is a pit, and appears to be very well behaved.) For the longest time, I though he was typing "Abcde" to protect her identity and I only recently found out that it was her real name. Oh and I just remembered, last christmas, his daughter made the news when the mall santa refused to pose with his daughter because of the pitbull.

I don't know any actors here so I can't comment on that at all, but if you are above average musician here you can make a pretty good living. Some of that is because there are a lot of rich people here who support arts. Most of the musicians I know earn part of their money by giving private lessons or working in a music school. Private cello lessons by the way go for 120-130 $/hour here.

As with so many things in life - you might make $130 per hour but only work 2-3 hours per week b/c there just isn't enough demand. My handful of artists in my social circle are much like the ones mentioned earlier - most cobble an income together from multiple sources including working in coffee shops and restaurants.

I don't know any actors here so I can't comment on that at all, but if you are above average musician here you can make a pretty good living. Some of that is because there are a lot of rich people here who support arts. Most of the musicians I know earn part of their money by giving private lessons or working in a music school. Private cello lessons by the way go for 120-130 $/hour here.

As with so many things in life - you might make $130 per hour but only work 2-3 hours per week b/c there just isn't enough demand. My handful of artists in my social circle are much like the ones mentioned earlier - most cobble an income together from multiple sources including working in coffee shops and restaurants.

This. There is a reason that my little brother isn't going into music, even though that is what he loves and is best at.

"Normal payday is scheduled for Monday July 6, but we decided to pay everyone this Friday July 3 so you can enjoy the weekend."

What does this mean "So you can enjoy the weekend?" Are you promoting spending your entire paycheck as soon as it is deposited?

thats quite the leap you've made there.

getting paid three days early might cheer some people up and allow them to meet financial obligations sooner. I dont hear this and think oh cause all these slobs must have spending issues. sometimes i think people over read into situations. getting paid early makes me smile